Alfred North Whitehead Quotes
Alfred North Whitehead was a British mathematician, logician, and philosopher of the late 19th and 20th centuries. With his student Bertrand Russell he co-authored the monumental Principia Mathematica, a foundational work in modern mathematical logic published in three volumes between 1910 and 1913. The quotes below are attributed to Alfred North Whitehead, organized by topic.
Alfred North Whitehead on God
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Attributed to Alfred North Whitehead:
“Religion is what the individual does with his own solitariness.”
Alfred North Whitehead on Knowledge
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Attributed to Alfred North Whitehead:
“The safest general characterisation of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”
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Attributed to Alfred North Whitehead:
“Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.”
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Attributed to Alfred North Whitehead:
“Ideas won't keep; something must be done about them.”
Alfred North Whitehead on Life
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Attributed to Alfred North Whitehead:
“The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy.”
Alfred North Whitehead on Mind
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Attributed to Alfred North Whitehead:
“It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.”
Alfred North Whitehead on Politics
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Attributed to Alfred North Whitehead:
“The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order.”
Alfred North Whitehead on Truth
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Attributed to Alfred North Whitehead:
“Seek simplicity, and distrust it.”